


Shift

by LibraryMage



Series: Werewolf AU [4]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Autistic Ezra Bridger, Child Abuse, Gen, Panic Attacks, Werewolves Turn Into Actual Wolves, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27343609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: Ezra's first full moon since being kidnapped by Maul.
Relationships: Ezra Bridger & Darth Maul
Series: Werewolf AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1506566
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Shift

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober 2020 Prompt: panic attacks

At the sight of the moonlight filtering down through the leaves, Ezra forgot how to breathe. He stopped in the doorway, staring at the shadows that shifted and flickered on the ground as the wind blew through the trees.

“Ezra!”

He flinched at the sound of Maul’s voice. Every time the man said his name, it sounded like a threat.

Shaking with every step, Ezra followed Maul into the clearing behind the cabin. As he drew even with Maul, the man put a hand on his shoulder, gripping tight as if he was trying to stop Ezra from trembling. Ezra looked up at him, but there was no sympathy in those cold brown eyes.

“Control your fear,” Maul hissed.

“I – I can’t.”

Ezra’s voice broke as he felt the tingling that always came before the change start to spread across his skin. He pulled away from Maul, nearly tripping as he took a few steps back. He hugged his arms around himself, his chest growing tight.

“I want to go home,” he said. He gasped for breath as tears stung at the corners of his eyes. He couldn’t cry. Maul always got so angry when he cried.

Ezra yelped as he hit something hard and rough. He’d backed himself into a tree. Static filled his head as the tingling on his skin grew more and more intense by the second. The tears were falling freely now. He didn’t even know when he’d given up trying to hold them back.

“I want to go home!” he cried. “I want my mom and dad!”

Hands grabbed his arms, fingers digging in so hard he cried out. He looked up to see Maul towering over him.

“Ezra,” Maul snapped. “Calm down.”

“Let go!” Ezra twisted in Maul’s grip, trying to break free, but Maul just held on tighter. “Let me _go!_ ”

He cried out again as the tingling on his skin plunged deeper, twisting into pain that wracked his entire body. It was happening. He would be shifting any minute now. His breath came in short, sharp gasps that didn’t seem to get him any air. He couldn’t do this. Not here. Not without his parents.

The back of his head struck the tree as Maul roughly shook him. Ezra scratched at Maul’s arms, but he wouldn’t let go.

“You go through this every month,” Maul growled, yanking Ezra closer to him. “And you always survive it. Now, stop acting like a child and _calm down._ ”

The tears just came faster as Ezra’s head started spinning. With a growl of disgust, Maul threw him to the ground. Ezra made no move to get up, curling in on himself as the pain grew worse by the second. The scars on his stomach and shoulder started to burn. His bones began shifting and creaking, rearranging themselves into a shape that wasn’t human.

The scream that rose up in the back of Ezra’s throat came out as a pained whine as he finally shifted, his human form giving way to the wolf.

Once the shift was done, the pain stopped. Somehow, at the same time, Ezra’s wolf form felt as natural to him as his real body and like a puppet he was controlling from far away. It was so much smaller than his human form, still just a puppy. Even after months of transforming, he still wasn't used to the change in size yet. It made him feel mixed-up and clumsy, even _more_ wrong in space than he normally was.

Leaves crunched under heavy steps. Ezra growled, his ears going flat as Maul’s wolf approached. Through his wolf form's eyes, Maul seemed even bigger and more terrifying than he had before, but right now, he didn't care. The anger that came whenever he turned took over and he lunged forward, teeth snapping at Maul’s leg. Maul’s paw slammed into him, swatting him back into the tree.

Ezra had barely gotten to his feet when Maul’s teeth closed around the skin on the back of his neck. He yelped, paws flailing in the air as Maul carried him deeper into the trees.

When Maul finally dropped him, Ezra stood there for a moment, staring him down as rage pounded in his head. He charged forward again, but this time not at Maul. He darted past the other wolf, taking off into the forest. He was faster as a wolf than as a human, and he was so much smaller that it might be easier to find a place to hide.

He could hear Maul crashing through the brush behind him, gaining on him with every step. But he didn’t care. He just kept running, desperate to put these woods and everything that had happened here behind him.

* * *

Ezra rubbed his eyes as he sat up slowly.

He was curled up at the base of a tree, leaves stuck to his clothes and his hair. His whole body was aching, worse than it normally did after he turned. But he couldn’t remember anything that had happened after he and Maul had left the cabin.

There was a _crack_ of a twig snapping in half and Ezra jumped, shrinking back against the tree’s exposed roots. When he looked up and caught sight of Maul, small fragments of memory broke through the haze in his mind.

_Maul’s paw swiping out of nowhere, knocking him aside as he tried to run._

_Maul pinning him down, snarling._

_Maul’s teeth snapping at his side, leaving wounds just deep enough to send Ezra collapsing to the ground._

Ezra whimpered, hugging his arms around himself as Maul approached. Even as sheer terror squeezed around his throat, he didn’t resist as Maul grabbed his arm and dragged him to his feet.

“I’ve had enough of this, Ezra,” Maul snarled. “If you even _think_ about running off again, you’ll spend the next full moon in a cage. Is that clear.”

Ezra scratched at Maul’s wrist, trying to pry his fingers away. Maul just yanked him closer, his grip so tight Ezra thought his arm would break.

“Is. that. clear?”

Ezra nodded, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. Maul released him and Ezra hugged his arms around himself.

“We’re going home,” Maul said, already walking in the direction of the cabin. “And your punishment is far from over.”

Ezra hugged his arms around himself as he trudged behind the man. With every step, that fear grew tighter and tighter around his chest until he could barely breathe.

But still he followed Maul. Trying to run wouldn’t get him anywhere, and he knew Maul’s threat wasn’t an empty one.

Doing what Maul said was the only way to keep himself safe.


End file.
